Vehicle wheel-rim.



H. WAG .ORST. VEHICLE W RIM. APPLICATION FILED MAR.14, 1911,

1 ,O85,772-. I Patented Feb. 3, 1914.-

- 4 Y IIIIIIZ/HI/ 6 I 7/ 4 I bad wlieei. i he rims oi? this type in tion 5 at the outer edge.

ills it i i Arnnzr OFFICE.

JAMES H. wasmmonsr, or AKRON, orrro, nssronon, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, OF

TIRE GLMFANY, GE NEW' N. 32"., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

' VEHICLE WHEEL-RIM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 14, 1911.

Patented Feb. 3, 1914.

Serial No. 614,357.

To 0]?) whom it 72mg; concern Youth-n1 relates to Vehicle wheel rims, and particularly to that class of rim designed for use in automobile set-"ice m which a resilient tire is carriet' by a detachable tire-carrying rim and we are provided for removably mounting tire and tire-carrying rim upon a rim or folly band permanently secured the folly of the erto used have been objectionable in that there was danger of loss of the wedging means used to mtumt the tire-carrying rim upon the My invr ing the advantages of the emigre-fastening type of rim together with certain further adrantages in construction and operation hereinafter fully described in the accompandng drawings which form a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a Side elevation of a portion. of a vehicle wheel equipped with my new device, parts being broken away; Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken on line ll-ll of Fig. 1; Fig. is a view similar to Fig. 2, parts being shown infull, with the wedge retracted from engagement with the tire-carrying rim and the felly band; F ,4: is a side elevation, looking outwardly, of the wedge member.

teferring to the drawingsin detail, the numeral 1 designates a vehicle wheel having the folly :2- upon which is permanently mounted the folly band 3 having the upwardly inclined flange 4: at the inner edge thereof, and the downwardly inrdined pornlpon the flange 4 and the wedge member 6 is n'iountcd the tire-carrying'rim 7 having inclined portions 8 and 9 engaging, res ectively, the flange 4 and the inclined sur aces 10 of the wedge portions 11. of the wedge member, The run tion prm 'ides a structure realiz-V 7,.Which may be of any of the well-known clencher or quiok-detachable types of tire-carrying rims, supports the tire 12, which may be of either the extensible or non-extensible bead type. The inclined surface of the flange 4 is preferably provided with a Series of spaced low projections 24 or lands, as I prefer to call them. There may be a number of these lands, equal to the number of wedge members 6, and they may be located either opposite the wedge. membgrs or staggered with relation to the latter. I desired, more lands than wedge members may jbe-used. I prefer to make the lands about one-thirty-second of. an inch in height, though they may be made considerably higher than this, and in some cases may be made even lower. These lands have I the function of permitting the rim to seat Iin fixed position upon the folly band, al-

though there may be slight inaccuracies of dimension between the two. In the manufacture of rims on a commercial. scale, it is not found practicable to produce rims of an absolutely uniform size, and the free interchangeability of rims is insured by the use of these lands. This is due to the fact that although a rim may be slightly undersize, if itbe supported at spaced points, its resiliency will permit it to straighten out slightly between the points of support and thus move to the same place upon the inclined wodging surface. of the telly band that a slightly larger rim would occupy. The spaced wedge members 6, engaging the other side of the rim at intervals, have the same effect as the spaced lands 24, and thus these wedge members may be forced to the desired predelermined position and the rim firmly seated upon the felly band. lands being low, as described, thebearing surface on the rim will normally engage the inclined bearing surface 4 of the folly band between adjacent lands, the area of contact being greater or less, depending on the closeness of fit of the rim and the ten- -sion to which it is subjected in forcing it The 9 I case it is subjected to abnormal shocks or stresses and thus prevents the distortion of the rim beyond its elastic limit.

I do not claim the use of lands broadly in this application, as the same forms the subject-matter of my application Serial Number 614,356, filed March 14, 1911, but I claim in this application only the use of lands for supporting one side of the rim in combination with wedges for supporting the other side thereof. I do not, however, wish to limit the appended claims, which are directed to these lands, to'include the particular form of wedge member illustrated, which forms the subject of other of the claims herein, as any of the well-known types of wedges may be used in connection with the telly band provided with lands to advantage.

The wedge member comprises the double wedge portions 11 joined bythe flange 13 which is internally threaded at 14. Engaging the threads 14 are the threads 15 of the externally threaded portion of the nut member 16, the internally threaded portion 17 of which engages the threads on the downwardly inclined section 18 of the bolt 19 passing through the telly and clamped rigidly thereto by the lock-nut and washer 20 and the shoulder or flange 21 formed adjacentto the threaded section of the bolt. The axis of the inclined portion of the bolt is substantially parallel to the outer surface of the flange 5 on the felly band:

The internal and external threads on the nut member 16 are opposed to each other in pitch, that is, if one is a righthand thread, the other'is a lefthand thread. Preferably I make the thread on the bolt, and consequently the internal thread of the nut memher, a righthand thread, and the external thread on the nut member a lefthand thread. If then the nut member is rotated in a righthand direction it will ride inwardly and up wardly upon the bolt. At the same time the wedge inember. because of the difference in the direction of the pitch of the threads, will also move upwardly and inwardly upon the nut member, and therefore will progress at a faster rate than the. nut member.

The head of the nut 16 I preferably make larger than the externally threaded portion 15 in order to prevent the wedge member ,from being removcd accidentally from the rents the accidenta is preferably so placed upon the nut 16 that the inner end of the latter will engage the flange 21 when the 'wedging faces 10 have been forced with the proper degree'of pressure against the rim. Further movement of the wedges is thus revented and the uniform positioning 0 the several wedges is thus assured. It is, therefore, impossible to mount the rim eccentrically upon the telly band b forcing in the wedges at one side more t an the wedges at the other, as may occur where no means for positively limit ing the inward movement of the wedges is provided. The engagement between the face of the nut 16 and the flange 21 also causes the nut to act as a 'am or lock-nutand prelloosening of the wedgemember carried therebyl The position of the wed e member upon the nut 16 may be adjuste by unscrewing .the nut 20 and withdrawing the bolt' 19 from the telly sufliciently to rmit the wedge portions 11 to clear the inclined surface 5 on the fell y band. The wedge member may then be rotated about the nut 16 for one or more turns in either direction, thus adjusting the initial position of the wedge-member upon the screw-threaded portion of the nut.

The shoulder or flange 21 forms primarily an abutment to be drawn up to the side of 5 the folly so that the bolt can e clamped fast to the felly by the nut :20. As itis inclined to the axis of the bolt it also holds the bolt from turning. It is also preferably made to engage the edge of the folly band. so as to assist in holding the latter in position and for the latter purpose it is preferably provided with a-lip 25 adaptcd'to overhang the edge of the folly band. This lip also assists in holding the bolt againstrotation.

To remove the lire-carrying rim and lire as a unit, it is only necessary to rotate the nut 16 in a coouter-clockwise direction for a few turns in order to retract the wedgemember downwardly and outwardly until it recedes below the line of the bottom of the tire-carrying rim, indicated by the broken line 23, thereby permitting the tire and tirecarrying rim to he slipped over the wedgemembcr and free from the wheel. To mount a tire and rim upon the wheel..this operation .is reversed. the tire and rim first being slipped over the wedge in its retracted position, the wedge then being screwed up into engagement ifh the inclined surface of the bottom of the tire-carrying rim;

It is to be noted as a distinct advantage inherent in my rim that the proportions may readily be made such that the wedge and nut-member will be within the plane of the outer edge of the tire-carrying rim when in operative position, and thus will be protect ed from contact with the curb or other ob. stacles along the read.

While I have illustrated and described one specific embodiment of my device, my invention is susceptible of broad application and I do not wish to be limited to the particular structure shown. w

Having thus described my invention; I claim:

1. The combination with a vehicle wheel having a surface at one edge thereof inclined to the plane of the wheel, of a de tachable rim superimposed upon said wheel, a wedge member for detachably securing said detachable rim to the wheel,and means for forcing the wedge member positively to advance and recede along said inclined stir-- face, said means including a bolt passing through the felly of the wheel and a nut screwing on said bolt and engaging said wedge member, and a stop on said nut for preventing the detachment of said nut from said bolt and said wedge member from said nut.

2. The combination with a vehicle wheel of a detachable rim superimposed upon said wheel, and means for detachably securing saitl detachable rim to the wheel including a screw-threaded member projecting from said wheel, an internally and externally threaded nut member screwing on said threaded member and having a head larger than the external diameter of the barrel of tithe nut member, and a wedge adaptedt'obe forced; between .said rim and wheel, saidwedge screwing on said barrel of the nut member.

3. The combination with a vehicle wheel of a remcabl rim and means for detachably mounting said removable rim upon said wheel including a bolt passing axially through the fellyof the wheel and having a shoulder or flange engaging the side of said felly, a screw-threaded portion extending beyond said flange and a wedge member riding on said screw-threaded extension and adapted to be forced into wedging engagement between said wheel and removable rim, 4. The combination with a vehicle wheel, of,a removable rim, and wedging meansfor detachably mounting said removable rim upon said wheel including a bolt having a portion passing axially through the felly of the wheel, and a threaded portion inclined to the plane of the wheel, a wedge member riding upon said inclined portion of said -,,gaige the inclined bearing surface of the bolt, and a shoulder or'flange between theta having an inclined bearing surface at one side thereof, said surface being provided with a series of circumferentially spaced low projections or lands, of a tire-carrying rim removably mounted on said wheel n'd supported at one side upon said lan ds, said lands being of such height as to permit the rim to engage the inclined bearing surface of the wheel between adjacent lands, and wedges secured to the wheel supporting the other side of said rim.

6. In a vehicle wheel, in combination, a felly, a felly band permanently secured thereto and having at one side thereof a flange provided with an outwardly inclined bearing surface, said surface being provided with circumferentially spaced low projections or lands, a tire-carrying rim supported atone side by said lands, said lands being ofsuch heightias to permit the rim to enwheel between adjacent lands, and a plurality of eircumferentially spaced wedges for supporting the other side of said rim, and means for forcing said wedges into the space between said felly band and the inner surface of said rim.

7. In a vehicle wheehin combination, a wheel member having a felly, anda fixed rim mounted thereon, a removable rim, and wedging means for detachably mounting said removable rim upon said fixed rim, including a bolt passing axially through the felly of the wheel, and having a shoulder or flange engaging one side of said folly and a removable nut attached to the end of said bolt opposite to said flange and engaging the other side of said felly, said bolt having a downwardly inclined threaded portion projecting beyond said flange, and a wedge member riding on said inclined portion and lying wholly within the line of the inner edge of the removable rim when moved along said inclined portion to inoperative -position.

JAMES H. WVAGENHORST. Witnesses:

EDMUND QUINCY Mosns, EUGENE C. Bonn. 

